I must admit, I cracked the spine on Pathfinder Tales: Bloodbound with no little trepidation. It was to be my first exposure to the Pathfinder universe, and I had no idea what to expect. While I have fond memories of cutting my genre teeth on the old TSR novels, Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms haven’t stood up well over time. That said, I find I actually appreciate their Ravenloft horror/fantasy world more now than I did back then, so entering into the Pathfinder world with vampires and clerics seemed like a good choice. Having closed the book on my first Pathfinder journey, I’m pleased to say F. Wesley Schneider put together a pretty solid novel that incorporates some of the universe’s overall world-building, but which is still accessible to a new reader. I feel like I came out of it understanding at least one corner of the world, and definitely curious to know more. As for the story itself, this is largely a gothic horror story, within the setting and time period of a pseudo-medieval fantasy. There are so many little elements here that make it all work. The settings include including drafty old castles, sprawling places of worship, and an…

The Suicide Motor Club is a visceral portrayal of the darker side of vampires. As you would expect from Buehlman, these are not the sparkly, hunky types of vampires that teenage girls swoon over. These are the things of your nightmares becoming reality. The pacing and emotions are as relentless as the vampires of the suicide motor club. The main vampires we meet are part of what is called The Suicide Motor Club. They stalk their prey on the highways (if the word stalking can be used when they are driving over 100 miles per hour. At night, with no lights.) Choosing their victims, causing horrific crashes, and feasting on the survivors. This to me, is just a terrifying scenario. It shows a vulnerability as there is little you can do when driving down the highway if another car decides their purpose is to make you crash. Normal people are not trained or capable of evading this. The fear of crashing is honestly scary enough for me. Especially in the 1960s before there were as many safety features on cars. But then to survive the initial crash, trapped and bleeding as waiting prey for the vampires to feast on and finish the job just…

Hex is a unique story about a witch who haunts the inhabitants of a small town.  It’s a creepy tale that stays with you after you finish reading and gives you plenty of food for thought – but probably in a way that you really wouldn’t expect.   Katherine van Wyler was sentenced to death for witchcraft by the towns people of Black Springs in the year 1664.  Unfortunately for the people of Black Springs Katherine took her death sentence rather badly and ever since has haunted the towns people who are now, effectively cursed.   I think Hex probably has one of the most unusual concepts for a creepy tale that I’ve ever come across.  A witch who haunts a town and literally walks the streets or shows up in people’s houses.  What makes this worse is that Katherine has her eyes and mouth sewn shut and is wrapped with chains.  Her appearance is usually preceded by the smell of rot and the stench of dirty water and if the inhabitants listen closely enough they can hear Katherine whispering quietly a string of vitriol that can cause madness and worse in any that overhear her words.  Now imagine that some people…

Grady Hendrix has done it again. A couple of years ago, I fell hard for Horrorstör, a horror tale set in an IKEA-like retail store, and I’ve been waiting anxiously for his follow-up novel ever since. My Best Friend’s Exorcism has much of the same type of horror/humor mash-up that I loved in Horrorstör, with the addition of a heartwarming story about a life-long friendship. Even better, for those of us who fondly remember the 80s, Hendrix takes us back in time to the era of cassette tapes, big hair, the AIDS scare and many more iconic 80s moments.  But don’t let that fool you. This is a horror story with some very creepy and unsettling moments. Hendrix has toned down the over-the-top crazy horror in his first book and given us a much subtler terror this time around, the kind that ratchets up slowly until the suspense is nearly killing you. The story is set in 1988 and mostly takes place at a small private high school in Charleston, SC. Abby and her three closest friends—Gretchen, Margaret and Glee—are sophomores at Albemarle Academy, and life is pretty much status quo. Their lives are full of school work, boys, the latest…

Fellside is my second Carey novel and coming on the heels of the very well received The Girl with All the Gifts I can say I had very high expectations.  Not always easy to follow up such a successful book but I think Carey manages to deliver a completely different style of book, a unique story and a compelling read, well written and powerful. This is a difficult book to review because of the desire to not give away spoilers.  Similar to TGWatG really!  So, what I can go with is what we’ve already been given on the synopsis. We know the story is set in Fellside, a high security prison and we know that Jess is one of the inmates.  Therefore probably safe to assume that Jess Moulson is a convict and given that the synopsis states that Jess could be spending the rest of her life in Fellside presumably she’s somebody with a serious crime behind her.  Now, Jess certainly has a story to tell and Carey tells that story in an addictive way that takes on the spirit of a ghost story with a difference. Jess is in prison for the murder of a young boy called…

Lots of interesting things are happening in the horror genre lately, as evidenced by my latest venture into Thomas E. Sniegoski’s new novel The Demonists. Imagine The Exorcist, urban fantasy style! This is also my first book by the author, and it certainly won’t be the last—not if there’s more like this coming my way. The story follows the husband-and-wife team of John Fogg and Theodora Knight, who are the world’s foremost experts on paranormal investigation. They’re even the stars of their own show called Spirit Chasers, a reality TV series that probes into supposedly haunted locations. But on Halloween night, the show producers decide to do a special episode as a publicity stunt, filming live as John and Theo investigate an old house reported to be filled with dark energy. Things should have unfolded like any other show, but then the hosts go into the basement and everything goes terribly wrong. The whole world watches in horror as the crew are massacred live on screen. John manages to survive, but not without sustaining serious injury. And Theo… Something much worse has happened to John’s wife, who is a powerful psychic medium in her own right. Though afterwards everyone was…

The Last Day of Jack Sparks is the story of a successful pop culture journalist, who made his fame writing books that focus on his experience as he explores a given topic. Books like Jack Sparks on Drugs, where he throws himself into the world of drugs and experiments to his heart’s delight, all in the name of research for his book. Not surprisingly, his books can be controversial, they are type of thing people will read to find out why everyone else is talking about them. For his latest book idea, he decides to delve into the world of the supernatural. There is definitely some humor in places as Jack Sparks clearly does not believe in the supernatural, but for the benefit of his book, he has to give things a try. The interesting thing about this book, is you know going in that Jack Sparks is dead (it’s right there in the title!), and he died in some mysterious way while writing this book on the supernatural. It definitely casts a little darker edge to things as Jack is very honest in that he finds the idea of there being truth in the supernatural as being rather ridiculous. As opposed…

It wasn’t until I had finished reading The Ballad of Black Tom that I found out it was based on an H.P. Lovecraft short story called The Horror at Red Hook and that several of the characters have the same names. This would have been more interesting to me had I actually read Lovecraft’s story first, but I did enjoy going back afterwards and looking up the details (thank God for Wikipedia!). What’s much more interesting about LaValle’s take on it is that he’s turned Lovecraft’s famous xenophobia on its head and written a story about one man’s experiences with racism in 1920s New York City. I mean, think about it: an African-American author, writing a story that deals with racism, based on a story by a famous racist. It sounds crazy, but LaValle pulls it off, although I have to say I was more interested in the mechanics of what he was trying to do, rather than the story itself, which to me lacked cohesion. The Lovecraft elements are subtle, and unless you’re familiar with the story it’s based upon, you may not notice them at all until the end. What did scream “Lovecraft” to me, however, was the unsettling feeling that runs…

Good Girls is the second book in the Motherless Children trilogy by Glen Hirshberg. I haven’t read Motherless Child, the first book in the series, but was assured this one can be read on it’s own as a standalone sequel. Having read it now, I think that, yes, it can be read without having read Motherless Child first, but I suspect my own enjoyment of this story would have been greatly enhanced had I read the first book prior to this one. One of the storylines in this picks up immediately after something very traumatic and horrific. Like seriously, standing in the carnage type of start to a story. I don’t know for sure, but I felt like this could have been the end of Motherless Child. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to verify this, but I was able to verify some of the characters involved in this scene were primary characters in the first book, so it is definitely possible. Maybe it is just me knowing that there was as story prior to this, and so when we are “dropped into the action”, I can’t help but wonder if this the end of the first book. Either way, I may have had some serious WTF just happened moments…

Medusa’s Web is my first Tim Power’s book but given that he seems to have the ability to combine great writing with fantastic imagination I don’t think it will be my last. I really enjoyed  Medusa’s Web. It has a wonderfully gothic horror feel to it and the writing style helps to lend it the feeling of an older book which is an aspect that I really enjoyed. The story gets off to a great start with an almost movie feel to it. Picture this. Two people arrive at a decaying mansion in the Hollywood Hills while the storm clouds gather overhead. Up in the mansion, two cousins watch their approach. Only days ago the head of the family, Aunt Amity, committed suicide in the most unlikely fashion by climbing to the top of the building and detonating a hand grenade. The four are about to spend a week together as part of Amily’s wishes before her last will is revealed. It’s all a little sinister feeling. The house, dressed up in old Hollywood movie props is a strange place, dilapidated, falling apart, doors that lead to nowhere and it seems to be slowly sinking into it’s foundations. It put…